Friendship is Summoning

“Come along now, Sweetie Belle. Let’s not be late to school today, hmm?”

“Coming, sis.” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes with exasperation. The little unicorn filly sighed and pulled the brush through her tail a few more times to straighten out the last few knots. As she set the brush back on the bathroom counter, she took a quick glance at her reflection in the mirror. Satisfied, she hopped off of the little hoofstool she had to stand on and went down the hall into her room.

“It’s not polite to keep a lady waiting!” Rarity called from downstairs.

“Just a minute!” Sweetie Belle shouted back. She slipped the straps to her saddle bag over her back, grabbed a few errant sheets of parchments that she had been doing her homework on last night off of the small desk, stuffed them into the bag, and bolted out of the room, through the hallway, down the stairs, and right to her sister’s side.

“There you are, darling,” Rarity beamed down at her little sister, running an approving eye over Sweetie’s well brushed and slightly curled mane and tail. “I’ve made your lunch for you. Peanut butter and zap apple jam sandwich, apple crisps, and a… surprise for dessert,” Rarity told her with a wink.

Sweetie grinned up at her. “Thank you, sis!” she squeaked and affectionately nuzzled her.

“Anytime, dear,” she said as she nuzzled Sweetie back. Rarity used her magic to pull the door open, and the two left Carousel Boutique and walked down the dirt roads of Ponyville. It was early in the morning, just a little past sunrise, and an unplanned fog drifted out of the Everfree forest and through the town, slowly evaporating in the light of Celestia’s sun. The dew glistened on nearly every surface and, along with the fog, gave the village an almost ethereal look.

Rarity spoke excitedly about a dress idea, inspired by this beautiful early morning visage. Sweetie Belle barely paid attention –“Gossamer, yes, and silk! Ooh, and diamonds!”- and instead opted to walk in silence. School was boring for her. They spent a lot of time going over grammar and arithmetic, and never anything cool or fun, like chemistry or magic. ‘At least it’s better than sitting in my room all day’ she mused.

“Well, here we are, darling.”

Rarity’s voice startled out of her daydreams of becoming a mad scientist, and sure enough the little school house was right in front of her, just a few dozen paces away. Miss Cheerilee was standing at the front door, greeting each one of her students with a heartwarming smile.

“Have a good day, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said with a gentle smile on her face. “I’ll pick you up after school is out.”

“Okay, see you later, sis!”

Only a half hour into the school day, and Sweetie Belle was already bored out of her mind. Miss Cheerilee was droning on and on about the four times tables. Sweetie had her foreleg propped up on her desk and was leaning her head on her hoof, eyes half closed and slowly looking around the room for anything more interesting to look at than the blackboard.

‘I wish something exiting would happen,’ she idly thought. ‘Anything to get me out of class…’

She was halfway through a daydream about a bunch of ninja  attacking the village to kidnap her sister and force her to find gems for them when she felt like something was tugging on her mane. Irritated over her interrupted imaginary adventure, she turned in her seat to snap at whoever was sitting behind her, only to find an empty desk.

‘Weird…’ she thought to herself.

She returned to her previous bored posture and tried to sink back into her daydream. A few minutes later, she felt that strange tugging again. An ethereal voice whispered in her ear, “Are you busy? Can you go?”

“Go?” she asked softly, turning to look over her shoulder only to find nothing behind her. “Go where?”

“You’re being Summoned,” the voice whispered to her. “Will you answer it?”

“I don’t know how,” she replied.

“Just let go… let go…”

“Let go…” she mused. She could feel the tugging growing more insistent, like someone had attached a rubber band to her, only it wasn’t physically attached. The sensation of being made forcibly aware of one’s metaphysical self was strange, like being told you have an extra limb you didn’t know about until someone pointed it out to you. ‘Well… I do want to get out of class,’ she thought. Her mind made up, she just… let go. The world shifted around her, replaced by Technicolor swirls and a low droning rumbling accompanied by a sound similar to rushing wind.

With a loud poof and a cloud of smoke, Sweetie Belle disappeared.

“Now, time to test it out. Summoning Jutsu!”

Naruto slammed his hand on the ground and watched with fascination as black squiggly lines spread out from the point of contact. A cloud of smoke poofed into existence under his hand, and he stepped back slightly to give whatever-it-was he just summoned enough room.

He waited with bated breath for the smoke to clear while listening to the sound of whatever-it-was coughing and wheezing. Ideas and images raced through his mind at light speed as he imagined just what his new Summoning Contract allowed him to summon.

Just as Naruto was starting to fidget with impatience, the smoke finally cleared enough that he could see exactly what he summoned. His excited face fell when he saw -not a lion or tiger or bear or anything fierce and intimidating- a tiny baby horse. Its coat was a light gray, almost white, and its mane and tail was a pale purple streaked with pale pink. Judging by the cut and curls of the mane, Naruto guessed it was a girl. When she turned to him, Naruto saw that her eyes were also a pale green. Eyes that were widening in shock and alarm.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” the little thing screamed and scrambled backwards on her hooves until her back was against a tree.

“Woah, woah, hey, shhhhh!” Naruto lifted his hands to his chest, palms out, trying to shush her. The little thing turned away, curled up into a little ball, pressed her hooves over her head, closed her eyes, and pressed herself against the tree, whimpering in fear.

“Hey, it’s ok,” Naruto reassured her, “I’m not gonna hurt you…” he said as gently as he could.

Slowly, the little thing stopped trembling, and slowly opened her eyes to look up at him. “Y-you promise?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“Promise,” he said, smiling reassuringly at her. Slowly, the little thing relaxed and stood up, still wary but not shaking like a leaf any more.

“So… what are you?” Naruto asked with his usual lack of tact.

“I’m a pony, a unicorn pony,” she responded, mildly offended.

Sure enough, when Naruto looked at her forehead, he saw a little stub of a horn poking out from between her curls.

“A unicorn?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yeah, a unicorn,” she replied. “What are you?”

“Me? Well… I’m a human, I guess…”

“You guess?”

“Yeah."

The little thing rolled her eyes. “Well, my name’s Sweetie Belle. Who are you?”

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, Believe it!”

“Ho-ka-ge?” Sweetie asked. “What’s a ‘Ho-ka-ge?”

“The Hokage is the leader of the village, and the most powerful ninja!”

“So… does that mean you’re a ninja?”

“Well… not yet. But I will be soon! You see, I failed the graduation exam but Mizuki-sensei told me about this super-secret make up exam, and all I had to do was sneak into the Hokage Tower, steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, and learn at least one jutsu. But I learned two jutsu from it! Maybe I’ll get extra credit…”

“Um… what’s a jutsu?”

Naruto cocked his head in confusion. After all, how could anyone not know what a jutsu was?

“You don’t know what a jutsu is?”

“…no.”

“Oh. Well, a jutsu is a ninja technique that allows us to do all sorts of things, like spit fireballs and transform into other people. That’s what makes ninja the strongest people in the world!”

“Oh! It’s like magic!” Sweetie Belle perked up. “Can you show me one?”

“Sure!” Naruto put his hands together in the ram seal and yelled “Transformation Jutsu!” The smoke generated by the technique quickly dissipated, and right where Naruto was standing before was an exact replica of Sweetie Belle bearing a wide grin.

“Wow!” Sweetie exclaimed as she bounded over to look at her doppleganger. “You look just like me!” She used her hooves to ruffle Naruto’s mane and tweak the little stub of a horn. “This is soooo cool!”

The two wore nearly identical beaming grins as they both giggled at each other.

“So, where am I, anyway?” Sweetie asked. “And how did I get here?”

“We’re in the forest just outside of Konoha, my home village,” he said with pride. “I summoned you here.”

“Summoned?”

“Yeah, it’s this really cool jutsu that allows me to summon awesome creatures to help me in battle and do all sorts of awesome stuff. I just learned it tonight, and I signed the contract and everything! You’re the first… um… pony that I summoned.”

“So, does that mean that we’re gonna fight bad guys and rescue princesses and stuff?!” Sweetie Belle asked, her voice squeaking with excitement.

“Definitely!” Naruto said, enthusiastically. “Well, once I graduate the Academy and start getting sent on missions and stuff,” he added.

“Awesome! So, when do you graduate?”

“As soon as either Mizuki-sensei or Iruka-sensei show up and I show them one of the super awesome jutsu I learned from the Scroll.”

“Well… how long will that take?” she asked.

Naruto shrugged.

“Well… in the mean time, do you wanna play a game?”

“Yeah! We can play ninja!”

Sweetie Belle grinned at the still transformed Naruto, and soon they were lost in an epic struggle between the evil changling overlord (Naruto) and the young unicorn ninja who rose up to stop him.

Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk!

Twilight groaned and rolled over in bed, the pleasant dreams she had been having slipping away like water through a sieve.

“Can you get th’ door, Spike?” she mumbled.

“Five more min’ts, Twi,” came the mumbled response.

“Ugh, fine,” she grumbled. Twilight sighed as she rolled out of bed and began shuffling to the front door. Bleary eyes barely managed to guide her way down the stairs as she yawned widely. ‘Ugh, that’s the last time I stay up studying ‘till 3am,’ she mentally complained, even though she knew that she said that every time she woke up after a late night study session.

The pounding on the door came again, a little more frantic this time, so she picked up her pace a little bit. ‘This had better be important,’ she complained to herself as she opened the door.

“Oh thank Celestia, Twilight, you have to help me!”

“Miss Cheerilee?” Twilight asked, slightly baffled. “Shouldn’t you be at school right now?”

“Yes, but it’s an emergency! One of my students has gone missing!”

“Missing?!” Twilight exclaimed, now fully awake.

“I don’t know what happened, I was just teaching them their times tables, when little Sweetie Belle just disappeared in a cloud of smoke! She was just gone!” The poor schoolteacher was near tears.

“How long ago did this happen?” Twilight asked as soothingly as she could with her own mounting panic.

“Maybe 10 minutes…”

“If we hurry, I might be able to find out what happened. Let’s go!”

Twilight and Cheerilee took off at a furious gallop through the town, dodging bystanders an market stalls at a furious pace.

“Hey, Twilight!” a voice called. Twilight looked up and to the side to see Rainbow Dash flying alongside the two frantically galloping ponies. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

“No time to explain! Go get the girls and meet me at the school ASAP! It’s an emergency!”

Startled, Rainbow nearly fell out of the sky, but a quick aileron roll and a midair somersault kept her flying. “Right!” she shouted and veered off, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight put on a burst of speed, sprinting to the school house that was just around the corner. Students were milling around the playground, huddled in groups and talking in hushed whispers, as if they were scared that if they spoke too loud, they’d disappear next. Twilight ignored them and slowed to a walking pace just in front of the door, panting slightly.

“Which classroom?” She asked over her shoulder at Cheerilee.

“This way,” she said, squeezing past the purple unicorn. They entered a normal looking classroom. Books were still open on the desks, the writing was still on the board, and there was no sign of any kind of struggle.

With a frown, Twilight’s horn lit up, sending a wave of purple light that started refracting at random points around the room, usually centered at one desk or another.

“Where did Sweetie Belle disappear?”

“S-she was sitting at that desk, over there,” Cheerilee pointed at a desk near the back. Twilight cantered over and began inspecting the refracted purple light, tracing the patterns the refracted light made.

“Hmm…” she hummed to herself. “There’s no spell residue, only latent magic residue, which is normal for any place a unicorn spends a significant amount of time… and a residue spell would have erased the latent magic as well… so however this happened, it wasn’t by magic.”

“But, if it wasn’t by magic, what could it have been?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well, what if it wasn’t unicorn magic? Would your spell show different types of magic?” Cheerilee asked.

“No, that spell only shows unicorn magic… but you do have a point. Now, let’s see…” Twilight shut her eyes in concentration and began mumbling to herself, mentally sorting through a list of possible spells.

“Aha! I’ve got it!” She cast a spell at the desk Sweetie Belle had been sitting at when she disappeared. The purple bolt of magic washed over, around, and through it. Strange, faintly glowing purple markings began to appear, like lemon juice on paper exposed to the sun. Squiggly lines and characters in a script unknown to Twilight formed a circle with ‘spokes’ of text radiating out from the middle of the circle, through the circle, and several hoofs past it.

“What… what does that mean?” Cheerilee asked, her voice wavering.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight answered. She looked out the window and saw her friends, the other Elements of Harmony, outside on the schoolyard. She walked over to the window, opening it with magic as she approached it, and called out. “Rainbow Dash!”

The cyan pegasus zoomed over to the window, and asked “Whatcha need, Twi?”

“Can you get me a camera?”

“Sure thing, I’ll be back in 10 seconds flat!” A rainbow contrail was left in her wake as she jetted away.

“Twilight, darling,” Rarity called as she and the other mares cantered over. “What is all this fuss about an emergency?”

Twilight sighed and looked at the fashionista, her eyes shining with sympathy. “In the middle of class, Sweetie Belle just… disappeared in a cloud of smoke,” she said as gently as she could.

“Oh come now, darling, surely you’re joking! That’s just preposterous. How could she have just… disappeared? And in a cloud of smoke, too!” Rarity chuckled nervously. “Next you’ll be telling me she’s secretly some kind of ninja pony.”

“Rarity, I’m not joking. Cheerilee saw the whole thing.”

“But… but… well, are you sure she didn’t just… accidentally teleport or anything?” Rarity bargained. “After all, when a young unicorn starts learning to access her magic, like Sweetie Belle is, sometimes strange magical accidents happen…”

“As far as I can tell, it wasn’t unicorn magic that caused it,” Twilight said. “Whatever it was, it left some kind of residue that one of my spells revealed. That’s why I sent Rainbow Dash to get me a camera.”

“Here you go, Twilight,” Rainbow said as she slid to a stop next to the window, her words slurred by the camera’s strap she was holding in her mouth.

“Speak of the devil…” Twilight muttered under her breath as she floated the camera into the classroom.

“Well,” Rarity huffed, “if it wasn’t unicorn magic, what kind of magic was it?”

“I… don’t know,” Twilight admitted as she positioned the camera to take a picture of the strange glowing circle thing.

“How could you not know, Twilight!” Rarity accused. “You’re Princess Celestia’s ‘personal student’” Rarity mocked, her cheeks flushed with anger.

“That’s just it, Rarity, I’m a student.” Twilight halfheartedly glared at her friend. “It’s not like I know everything there is to know about all types of magic.”

Twilight sighed, her eyes softening. “I know you’re going through a hard time, Rarity, but trust me when I say that I will figure out what happened to Sweetie Belle, and we will get her back. I promise.”

Rarity’s eyes were moist with unshed tears. She sniffled a little bit and ducked her head. “Yes,” she murmered, “yes, of course we will.”

“There there,” Fluttershy crooned gently as she nuzzled her dear friend. “I’m sure everything will be fine. You’ve got to be strong now, for Sweetie Belle.”

“Of course, darling,” Rarity weakly smiled at the yellow pegasus. “Ugh, these tears are going to make my eyes all red and puffy and it will totally clash with my coat,” she somewhat lightheartedly complained. Fluttershy smiled back at her and continued to whisper reassurance in her friend’s ear.

Off to the side, Rainbow Dash was standing next to Applejack, the two conversing in hushed but furious whispers.

“Say, where do you think Pinkie Pie ran off to?” Rainbow asked.

“She said somethin’ ‘bout playin’ with the schoolfoals,” Applejack said, jerking her head towards the playground. “T’ keep ‘em busy an’ outta the way.”

“So, what’re we gonna do when Twilight figures out who took Sweetie Belle?” Rainbow asked her friend.

“Ah reckon we’ll confront it,” Applejack growled, “an’ teach it just why foalnappin’s a bad idea,”

“Heh… I bet I could take it down faster than you could,” Rainbow smirked at her friend. “In fact, I bet I’ll take it down so fast you won’t get even one buck in.”

“That so?” Applejack smirked back at her. “I suppose we’ll just see about that, now won’t we, sugercube.”

“Limit break!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she reared up on her hind legs and waved her forelegs around in what was supposed to be an intimidating manner. She suddenly leaped at Naruto, who had long since dispelled the transformation and was back in his usual form.

“Counter cross!” he yelled back at her as he grabbed her around the middle and –gently, mind you- sent her into a tumble across the forest floor. Sweetie Belle lay there, panting, after she came to a stop and slammed a hoof into the ground.

“No fair,” she complained. “You’re so much bigger and stronger, I can’t beat you.”

“Hey, I’m a super awesome ninja, even if you were as big and strong as me, I’d still win,” Naruto bragged.

“Nuh uh!” She countered, eloquently.

“Yeah huh!” He respectfully disagreed.

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Fine,” Sweetie Belle growled. “But I bet if I had an ally or two, we’d be able to win.”

“You think so?” Naruto taunted her.

“Definitely!” She replied. Suddenly, she had an epiphany. “Hey, why don’t you do that summon-thingy and bring my friend Scootaloo here! She’d team up with me and we’d totally win!”

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Naruto grinned at her. “Alright, watch and be amazed!”

Naruto bit his thumb and quickly spread the blood to all of his fingertips, flashed through the handseals, and slammed his palm on the ground. “Summoning Jutsu: Scootaloo!”

The cloud of smoke slowly dissipated as Naruto and Sweetie Belle waited with bated breath. As soon as Sweetie could see the figure obscured by the smoke clearly enough to make out the dull bronze coat and purpleish mane of her friend, she called out “Scootaloo! Hey! C’mon, let’s play!”

“Wha… Sweetie Belle?” the little pegasus filly asked in confusion. “What’re you doing here? Where are we? What’s going on?”

“My new friend Naruto Summoned us here, and we’re in the forest outside his home village. But that’s not important right now,” Sweetie Belle babbled, excitedly. “Wanna play ninja with us?”

“Us?”

“Yeah… OH!” Sweetie began tugging her fellow pony over to where Naruto was standing. “I need to introduce you! Naruto, this is Scootaloo, my best friend. Scootaloo, this is my new friend Naruto. He’s a ninja and can do some amazing ninja magic and is a lot of fun!”

Scootaloo looked up at the orange and blue clad, blonde haired, furless ape-like creature, and her eyes widened and jaw dropped.

“W-w-what is that thing!” she shouted, pointing a hoof.

“Oh, he’s a human…” Sweetie said. “It’s ok, though, he’s really friendly!”

“You sure?” Scootaloo asked, skeptically.

“Positive.”

“Well…” Scootaloo paused. “If you say he’s cool, then he’s cool.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Scootaloo,” Naruto said as he crouched down to the little filly’s height. “We were playing ninja, but Sweetie was complaining about how it was too hard to beat me, so I summoned you here so you could help her out!”

“Ninja, huh… Sounds like fun. I’m in!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Uh… how do you play it?”

“Well, you see…”

“Ooh, a scene change!”

Pinkie Pie was having the time of her life. She’d convinced most of the schoolfoals to participate in the largest game of hide n’ seek that she’d ever played! The bright smiles and joyous laughter was music to Pinkie’s ears, especially after how worried and scared they’d been earlier.

She bounced along humming a little tune to herself; she’s already flushed out a half-dozen hiding foals and chased them back to base, purposely letting them stay just barely a step ahead of her. It was so much fun she could barely stop giggling long enough to hum an infectious tune! Of course, the reason why she was humming was so that it would get stuck in the author’s head for the next few days, but that was only because he was a meanie-beany-grumpy pants who complained too much, and he really needed to smile more. Besides, it would keep his mind on the ponies, and he’d be able to write more!

… dammit, Pinkie. -_-;;

From the corner of her eye, Pinkie spotted a purpleish tail trailing out from under a bush. Pinkie, wanting to have a little more fun with this one than the others, said “Now where oh where could that little silly filly be?”

The bush rustled slightly and the tail retracted into the bush.

“Now, is she over here? Nope. How about under that rock! Nope. Maybe…” Pinkie made her hoofsteps as loud as she could as she walked over to the bush. “Is she under this bush?”

The pink pony shoved her forehooves into the bush and shoved the branches out of the way, only to find a slowly dissipating cloud of smoke.

“Ooo, she’s gooooood…”

(A/N) Meanwhile, in the Fortress of Solitude, Aquaman makes himself a sandwich because he's too useless to do anything else!

"Hey, you know what would go great with this sandwich? Sardines..." moom moom moom moom moom

... dammit, Pinkie. Y U Do Dat to meh?. -_-;;